AN EXPLORATION IN THE FAR EAST 353 



elephant runs are clearly marked-out tracks, to whicli they 

 usually keep. The stockade is on one of them, with an open 

 gate at one extremity, from which an immense arm of piled 

 logs stretches on either side, so that the rush may be, once 

 the arms are entered, into the siugle opening that has been 

 left. The first day after the stockade is -finished the 

 driving commences. If fortune smiles, once the herd is 

 started by shouting and firing in their rear, they make a 

 rush for the stockade rim and are enclosed without further 

 trouble ; if not, they require to be driven several times — a 

 service often of difficulty and danger. When enclosed, the 

 decoy elephants with trained men are employed for noosing 

 and tying them." 



An enormous area of the tract we travelled over, in the 

 neighbourhood of the Hasdii river and its tributaries, was 

 found to be full of coal measures, which have since been 

 professionally examined, and reported to furnish mineral 

 of a highly valuable character. But the extreme remote- 

 ness of these regions from any of the great centres of 

 commerce or transport puts out of the question any imme- 

 diate utiUsation either of the coal or the rich store of timber 

 which are now ascertained to exist. The same reason 

 renders all idea of colonising these wilds, except by the 

 slow process of extending population, a matter which it 

 would not be useful to discuss. Far superior lands in every 

 respect, whether of natural quality or situation, exist in 

 great areas in the Mandla highlands, which must come to 

 be taken up before a plough can furrow the remote regions 

 to the east of Amarkantak. 



On the 1st of June we chmbed the steep ascent leading 

 up to Amarkantak from the east, and rested there for two 

 days. I was still very ill and weak, and obhged to travel 

 on an elephant ; and though it was very tempting to hnger 

 on this elevated region, where, at this season of excessive 

 heat below, the temperature in a small tent all day was 

 delightful, while at night it was cold enough to enjoy a 

 couple of blankets, the season was getting very late, and 

 banks of clouds collecting on the horizon threatened heavy 

 rain, which might block the way to Jubbulpiir. So we 



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